While not exactly a household name, filmmaker/character actor Larry Fessenden enjoys a cult following. For his latest effort, we go to 2024’s Blackout.

In upstate New York, Charley Barrett (Alex Hurt) works as an artist. While random acts of violence plague his community, Charley starts to wonder if he might be the culprit.

Charley loses memories for extended periods and begins to believe he’s a werewolf. Charley must deal with his issues inside of a town wracked with fear and mistrust.

Though I knew Fessenden somewhat from his acting, Blackout became his first feature that I watched. If this acts as representative sample, I don’t think I missed much.

Based on my synopsis, you might expect that Blackout leaves the question of Charley’s potential lycanthropy up for grabs through much of the movie. Nope – we learn very early in the tale that Charley does indeed turn into a beast and commit violence.

This becomes a major mistake, as it eliminates virtually all of the movie’s potential psychological tension. If we got a tale in which we found ourselves left guessing for much of the flick’s running time, that could produce something compelling.

But since we know the truth from nearly the start, this “is he or isn’t he?” theme feels pointless. We’re far ahead of the characters so we find ourselves bored as we wait for them to catch up with us.

Fessenden’s absolute inability to tell a straightforward narrative doesn’t help. Oh, the bones of Blackout proceed in order.

As such, we see a succession of werewolf kills along with Charley’s growing realization and a police investigation. These come on the expected path.

However, Fessenden bogs down Blackout with so many extraneous themes and scenes that the story turns into a complete mess. He sends us on continual disjointed detours that mean the end product never gets into a groove.

Rather than just stick with a psychological horror tale, Blackout makes clumsy stabs at political topics. This means hamfisted nods toward issues related to the environment and – especially – immigration.

All of these moments seem jammed into the movie. Fessenden doesn’t find a way to neatly connect them to the basic story, so they seem like cheap editorializing.

Not only does Fessenden fail to tell a coherent narrative, but also he sticks us with terrible dialogue and flat characters. Even Charley feels largely one-dimensional, as the movie’s attempts to flesh him out never come across as well-realized.

Pacing turns into a major issue as well. For instance, just as the action needs to heat up, we find an extremely long scene between his ex Sharon (Addison Timlin) and her new boyfriend Stuart (John Swanberg).

Granted, this sequence fits into the horror plot eventually, but Fessenden doesn’t know when to quit. The segment could be much shorter and suit the film better.

Blackout comes packed with unnecessary scenes that go nowhere. All of this leaves us with a meandering tale.

Hurt does okay as our lead, though he doesn’t seem to have inherited his father William’s talent. While a decent actor, he doesn’t seem able to dig into his part with real depth.

Though Hurt seems like the second coming of Olivier compared to the largely woeful collection of supporting actors we find here. A few decent performances manifest from genre veterans like Marshall Bell and Barbara Crampton, but most of the “actors” feel like folks Fessenden just dragged in off the street.

If Blackout brought the goods with its action scenes, these issues would become less problematic. However, the movie features these infrequently and doesn’t manage to make them exciting when they do occur.

Frankly, Blackout feels like the product of a neophyte filmmaker, not a veteran. Disjointed, clumsy and just plain dull, this turns into a poor excuse for a horror movie.

Blackout appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. For the most part, visuals were positive.

Overall sharpness seemed fine. A little softness impacted a few nighttime shots, but in general, delineation remained appropriate.

I saw no moiré effects or jaggies, and edge haloes didn’t appear. Print flaws also never became a factor.

The film tended toward subdued hues that mixed teal and amber. These colors remained restrained and looked fine given stylistic choices.

Blacks seemed dark and tight, and low-light shots brought us positive clarity. This became a satisfactory presentation.

Heavy on atmospherics, the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 added a little kick to the proceedings. Action shots showed nice involvement, and a few other sequences opened up the mix well enough. The movie lacked many standout auditory moments, but the soundfield created a decent sense of place.

No issues with audio quality emerged. Speech was natural and smooth, while music offered good range and dimensionality.

Effects came across as accurate and tight. Again, the track lacked a lot to make it excel, but it fit the story well enough.

The disc comes with a mix of extras, and these include an audio commentary from writer/director/editor/producer Larry Fessenden. He offers a running, screen-specific look at story/characters/themes, inspirations and influences, cast and performances, sets and locations, music and audio, various effects, costumes, visual design and photography, and related domains.

Overall, this becomes a satisfying track. Fessenden covers an appealing array of topics and does so in an efficient and engaging manner.

Behind the Scenes spans one hour, 16 minutes, 51 seconds. The piece opens with an intro from Fessenden that details the project’s path to the screen and we also get remarks from VFX artist Eugene Lehnert, artist/animator John Mitchell, cinematographer Collin Brazie, co-producer Gaby Leyner, production assistant Matt Yturralde, animator James Siewert, boom and mixer Jose Rodriguez, and actors Alex Hurt, Rigo Garay, and John Speredakos. <:P> Despite those sporadic comments, most of “Scenes” offers a production diary that shows aspects of the shoot. I enjoy this form of “fly on the wall” material so this turns into an enjoyable glimpse at the sets.

With Larry Fessenden’s Monsterverse, we find a five-minute, 42-second reel. It simply offers a montage of scenes from Fessenden’s movies and feels like a waste of time.

A Photoshoot Timelapse fills three minutes, 40 seconds. This shows various actors’ makeup transformation and becomes a decent view of these processes.

In addition to both teaser and theatrical trailers, the disc concludes with an audio drama. It runs 25 minutes, 40 seconds.

Created before Blackout the movie, expect a much narrowed version of the story, one that focuses on the basic werewolf drama without all the distractions and detours of the film. That makes the “radio version” a more exciting and compelling take on the tale – it’s too bad the movie itself couldn’t follow suit.

The package also comes with a booklet. It offers a brief blurb from Fangoria’s Phil Nobile Jr. and a few publicity/behind the scenes photos.

If you want an involving update on the wolfman genre, look somewhere other than Blackout. Bogged down by a meandering story and too many amateurish elements, the movie becomes a disjointed dud. The Blu-ray brings solid picture and audio along with a good selection of supplements. Though the basic tale boasts promise, Blackout never clicks.